Ndutu Mobile Tented Camp

It matters, because the camp's season, December to March, spans three different trips. December is the arrival: the short rains have greened the plains and the herds pour in to graze, with the first calves still weeks away. Late January to the middle of March is the calving proper, when more than eight in ten of the pregnant females drop their calves within a few weeks of each other, and the peak is February, when around half a million calves are born inside a two to three week window. March is the tail of it, with heavy thunderstorms most afternoons and the herds beginning to drift as the long rains take hold.

If you want the births themselves, and the predators that follow them, February is the month, and it is also, oddly, the driest month of the rainy season, so the storms are more theatre than obstacle. If you would rather watch the herds arrive across green plains than see the births, December and early January are the choice. Tell us which you are after and we will place the dates accordingly.

Fly to Ndutu airstrip, about twenty minutes from the camp. Scheduled flights from Arusha run several times a day in season and take a little over an hour direct, or up to an hour and forty minutes when the aircraft calls at another strip first, and there are afternoon departures back as well as morning ones, which makes the connection to an evening international flight easier than it is from the north. We can also arrange a private charter, a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, from Arusha or Kilimanjaro at your own time, and the same aircraft can take you on to the central Serengeti or the Mara River afterwards without going back to town.

Whichever you choose, luggage is fifteen kilograms a person in a soft duffel, hand luggage and cameras included, so a long lens needs planning and a hard case stays at home.

Yes, and it is a road day worth doing. The crater rim to Ndutu is about eighty kilometres on gravel and takes two to two and a half hours, all of it inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, so a morning in the crater followed by a game drive across the plains to camp is a natural sequence and saves a flight. From Arusha the whole journey by road is around 225 kilometres and five to six hours, which is why we break it with a night at the crater rather than attempt it in one go.

Because the camp sits in the Conservation Area rather than the national park, the vehicle that brings you can leave the track once the herds are in sight, so the transfer becomes the first game drive of the stay. Tell us whether you would rather drive or fly and we will price both.

Yes, although it is high ground. Both TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the American CDC treat every part of Tanzania below 1,800 metres as malaria country, and the UK service rates it high risk all year with antimalarial tablets among its recommendations; only land above 1,800 metres is classed as free of risk. Lake Ndutu and the plains around the camp's marsh lie at about 1,600 metres, which is below the line, and the calving season falls in the rains rather than the dry months.

We arrange travel; we are not doctors, and we never advise on medication ourselves. The right course for you, and for children, is a conversation with your own doctor or a travel clinic, with the dates in front of you. On the practical side, which is ours: long sleeves and trousers from late afternoon, repellent on the veranda, and a word to the camp staff if you find a mosquito inside the mesh.

Warm, green and stormy in bursts. Afternoons run to about twenty-seven degrees and nights to about fifteen, with a short, unpredictable spell of rain somewhere in November or December that greens the plains, then heavy afternoon thunderstorms through the calving months that rarely last the day. February is the driest month of the rainy season; March is the wettest of the three, as the long rains arrive.

Pack a light waterproof and a fleece for the evenings, when the cold settles quickly after a storm, light long-sleeved clothing in neutral colours for the days, closed shoes that can take mud for the marsh walks, high-factor sun cream and a hat for the open plains, and a dust-proof bag for the camera in the dry spells between storms. Fifteen kilograms in a soft bag is the limit for the flights, and the camp does laundry, so travel light.

Yes. The camp welcomes children under twelve and runs a programme for them: tracking and spoor work with the guides, animal and bird identification, blunt spear throwing and bow-and-arrow making taught by a Maasai warrior, a walk with the Maasai to hear how they live in the bush, cooking with the chefs and marshmallows at the fire before bed. Two of the tents have two bedrooms for a family under one roof, a standard tent can take an extra bed for a young child, and triples are available on request.

The calving is the easiest stage of the migration for children: it happens in daylight on open ground within reach of the camp, with far less of the waiting that a river crossing demands. Tell us their ages when you enquire, because the walks along the marsh go out with a ranger and have a minimum age that we confirm for your dates, and we will build the days around what they can actually do.